It’s Sunday night at Nationals Park, and the Philadelphia Phillies are in town for the final game of their series.  Cole Hamels is the starting pitcher for the Phillies.  Hamels is the 2008 World Series MVP.  A man with class and respectability.  Right?…..Wrong!

1^st inning, 2 outs, and the young rookie Bryce Harper steps up to the plate.  Harper is the newest “Phenom” on the the Washington Nationals roster.  The man has a cannon for an arm.  Runs the bases like a cheetah is chasing him.  Knows when to steal a base.  Studies his opponent.  And is currently batting .261.

Not bad, huh?  Oh, I forgot to mention that he is the youngest player in MLB at 19.  Sunday night is his 8^th game in the majors.  Harper may not keep the Nats in 1^st place in the NL East, but it won’t be from lack of effort on his part.

Anyway, back to the game.  Harper is dug in and waiting on the 3^rd pitch.  The left-handed Hamels hurls a fast ball and hits Harper in the back.  Harper drops his bat to the ground.  Bends over to stretch the muscles that just got zinged, and then, trots off to first base never looking at Hamels.  Even though the pitch appeared to be intentional, the Umpire didn’t call it.  Harper, for a young man, never said a word.

Jayson Werth advances Harper to third base with a single.  As Hamels turns and throws to first to try and pick off Werth, Harper steals home.  Safe at home with his 1^st steal in the majors, Harper dusts himself off and heads for the dugout, taking a quick glance at pitcher Hamels, as if to say “How do you like me, now”.  Ya gotta love this kid.

After the game, Hamels is quoted as saying, “I was trying to hit him. I’m not going to deny it. That’s just … something that I grew up watching, that’s what happened, so I’m just trying to continue the old baseball. I think some people kind of get away from it. I remember when I was a rookie, the strike zone was really, really small and you didn’t say anything just because that’s the way baseball is. Sometimes the league is protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball.”  What the heck does that mean?

After Harper was told the hit was intentional, the classy young player said, “I’m not mad at all.  He is a great guy, great pitcher, he knows how to pitch, he is an All-Star. It’s all good. … Hamels threw a good game tonight. You have to give all the props to him. He came out there, he threw the ball well. There is nothing we can do about it.”

Now that’s class.  This young man is wise beyond his years.

Cole Hamels was handed a five game suspension, and a fine, by Major League Baseball.

Til we meet again.

FB   05/07/12